Existing empirics in the corruption literature continue to advance contradictory propositions on how to design sound anti-corruption reforms aimed at addressing bureaucratic corruption. This paper argues that this arises due to the failure to identify the distributional impact of bribe payments and precisely who bears the burden of bribery. In reconciling previous studies, this paper presents a unified analytical framework which simultaneously examines how the incidence of bribery in public service delivery varies with an individual’s economic, social and political factors. It then investigates what forms of accountability mechanisms are effective in mitigating bureaucratic opportunism behaviour.
Using an individual-level and experience-based survey conducted across local counties in Kenya, and implementing a series of logistical regression analysis, several key findings emerge. First, the burden
27
of bribery disproportionally falls on the poor, who face costly exit options to alternative supplies.
Second, the poor pay bribes more frequent than the rich, an aspect which reinforces the poverty-bribery trap. Third, the likelihood of paying bribes differs across public services, with the effects being stronger for health and education - services which the rich have the potential to exit and seek from the private sector. Fourth, membership to social organizations reduces bribery while political organizations increase the propensity to bribe. Finally, the results offer strong evidence in support of strong civil societies and media as effective instruments which can deter bureaucratic corruption.
These findings have important policy implications. First, they highlight the need to align anti-corruption reforms with poverty reduction strategies, an aspect lacking in the localization initiative in Kenya. Empowering the poor, in terms of boosting income opportunities may play a key role in reducing the incidence of bribery by increasing opportunities to exit to alternative sources which provide better quality but expensive services. Second, consistent with the logic by North et al. (2009), promoting open access order, especially membership in religious and community association should be encouraged as a channel for solving information asymmetry and collective action problems which perpetuate corruption. Finally strengthening local countervailing mechanisms such as civil society movements and a free media can alter the structure of incentives faced by bureaucrats and local politicians, and thus foster downward accountability, and thus equity in accessing public services.
Despite the rigor undertaken in the analysis, several caveats remain. First, the paper is silent on the magnitude of bribes. Poor individuals might be more likely to pay bribes, but the amount may be lower compared to the rich. While this could be the case, substantiating this claim is not possible as the survey data does not contain any information on the actual amount of bribes paid. Second, from the survey responses, it is not possible to identify whether individuals drive bribery or react to demands from bureaucrats. The third caveat relates to the problem of reverse causality. While the poor are prone to pay bribes, individuals who pay bribes might be poorer to begin with and thus perpetuate bribery in exchange of public services. However, in the absence of a valid instrument for poverty, the analysis abstains from interpreting the empirical estimates in a causal manner. Finally, given the trade-off between quantitative and qualitative techniques, the analysis does not fully capture the underlying processes and mechanisms which account for variations in public service provision and accountability between better and worse performing local counties. While these concerns are fully acknowledged and left for future research, the empirical findings offer vital insights on the micro-level dynamics of bribery in public service delivery across local counties in Kenya.
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32 Appendix
Figure 1: Distribution of poverty index
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
051015
0 5 10 15 20
poverty index
33
Figure 2: Distribution of the response variable (disaggregated by each public service)
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
020406080
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index
020406080
Percent
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index (permits)
020406080
Percent
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index (water)
020406080
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index (health)
020406080
Percent
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index (police)
020406080
Percent
-.5 0 .5 1
Bribe index (education)
34 Variable
Question number
in the survey Description* Expected sign
Bribe Q61A-Q61E
In the past year, how often, if ever, have you had to pay a bribe, give a gift or do a favour to government officials in order to get: water or sanitation services, treatment at a local health clinic or hospital, avoid problem with the police or get school placement? 0=Never, 1=Only once, 2=A few times, 3=Often, 4= no experience
Dependent variable
Poverty Q8A-Q8E Poverty index as constructed in section 4 positive
Religious group member Q25A Are you a member of a religious group? yes= 1; No = 0 negative
Voluntary group member Q25B Are you a member of a voluntary association? yes= 1; No = 0 positive
Contact with local councillor Q30A How often have you contacted the local government councillor at some important
problem to assist? 0=Never, 1=Only once, 2=A few times, 3=Often positive Contact with MP Q30B How often have you contacted the local government councillor at some important
problem to assist? 0=Never, 1=Only once, 2=A few times, 3=Often positive Contact with gov. agency Q30C How often have you contacted the local government councillor at some important
problem to assist? 0=Never, 1=Only once, 2=A few times, 3=Often positive Contact with political party Q30D How often have you contacted the local government councillor at some important
problem to assist? 0=Never, 1=Only once, 2=A few times, 3=Often positive Cognitive effect (trust) Q60C How many government officials do you think are involved in corruption? None=0,
1= at least some of them positive
Employment Q96 Employed = 1; Unemployed = 0 positive
Education 0=No formal schooling, 1=Informal schooling only, 2=Some primary ambiguous
schooling, 3=secondary school ,4=post-secondary
Gender Q101 male=1; female =0 ambiguous
Age Q113 age in years negative
Urban Q115 urban= 1; rural=0 ambiguous
Media Q53 How effective the news media reveals government mistakes and corruption? 1=
effective, 0=ineffective
Civil society movement Q59 How effective civil societies reveal government mistakes and corruption? 1=
effective, 0=ineffective
Source: Carter (2012). *Description of the questions are replicated from the questionnaire.
35
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
Table A3: Distribution of the number of individuals (in %) who perceive different institutions as
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
Table A4: Distribution of the number of individuals (in %) who paid a bribe, disaggregated by
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
Note: The quintiles are constructed using the poverty index as outlined in section 4.
Table A5: Distribution of the number of individuals (in %) who paid a bribe, disaggregated by
Source: own calculation from Afro-barometer survey (2011).
36
Significance is denoted by *** for p<0.01, ** for p<0.05 and * for p<0.1 Source: Afro-barometer survey (2011).
37 Bribe index Permits Water Health Police Education
Poverty 0.110*** 0.144*** 0.191*** 0.174*** 0.131*** 0.196***
(5.72) (5.97) (3.94) (7.42) (6.04) (6.63)
Media 0.115** 0.037 0.052 0.032 0.119 0.079
(2.11) (0.66) (0.45) (0.45) (1.40) (0.82)
Poverty * Media -0.017** -0.017** -0.023 -0.009 -0.029*** -0.032***
(-2.37) (-2.09) (-1.42) (-0.95) (-2.78) (-2.82)
Control variables Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
N Pseudo R2
2300 0.037
2300 0.064
2300 0.078
2300 0.079
2300 0.069
2300 0.034 z statistic in parentheses. Robust standard errors used. Significant at * 10%, ** 5%, *** 1%.
Source: Afro-barometer survey (2011).
38 Table A8: Robustness results: Logit Regressions – correction for social desirability bias
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Bribe index Permits Water Health Police Education
Poverty 0.072*** 0.043*** 0.044*** 0.062*** 0.037** 0.048*** Q100: Who do you think sent us to do this interview?
Source: Afro-barometer survey (2011).
39 Table A9: Robustness results: Ordered regression - correction for social desirability bias
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Permits Water Health Police Education
Poverty 0.097*** 0.153*** 0.142*** 0.071*** 0.144*** Q100: Who do you think sent us to do this interview?
Source: Afro-barometer survey (2011).
40 Table A10: Robustness results: Hurdle model - Negative binomial Regression
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Bribe index Permits Water Health Police Education
Poverty 0.016*** 0.022*** 0.025*** 0.047*** 0.019*** 0.020**
(3.81) (3.50) (2.69) (5.91) (2.97) (2.06)
Religious group member -0.033** -0.012 -0.029 0.004 -0.066*** -0.071***
(-2.61) (-0.63) (-1.18) (0.17) (-4.17) (-2.92)
Voluntary group member 0.026* 0.027 0.090*** 0.058** 0.070*** 0.057**
(1.73) (1.37) (3.81) (2.12) (3.17) (2.06)
Contact with local councilor 0.047** 0.099*** 0.065 0.070* 0.060** 0.028
(2.12) (3.59) (1.62) (1.68) (2.40) (0.64)
Contact with MP 0.008 0.012 0.065* 0.098** 0.024 0.098**
(0.40) (0.50) (1.66) (2.26) (0.83) (2.31)
Contact with gov. agency 0.007 -0.002 -0.006 -0.085* -0.025 -0.112**
(0.45) (-0.11) (-0.18) (-1.87) (-0.97) (-2.56) Contact with political party -0.005 0.002 -0.032 -0.026 0.053** 0.017
(-0.28) (0.11) (-0.83) (-0.63) (2.62) (0.36)
Control variables Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
N 2305 2305 2305 2305 2305 2305
z statistic in parentheses. Robust standard errors used. Significant at * 10%; ** 5%; *** 1%
Source: Afro-barometer survey (2011).